Alberto Chicote does not dare let the word mafia come out of his mouth. “Give it whatever name you want,” she urges this journalist. However, his return with the fifth season of Are you going to eat it?, produced by Atresmedia TV and Cuarzo Producciones and which premieres tonight on laSexta, Chicote does describe the meaning that the Royal Academy of Language (RAE) gives to the nameless word: “Organized group that tries to defend its interests without too many scruples”.
“There are always people who don’t give a damn where they come from wherever they see two bitches,” the chef asserts bluntly. “If they come from a nursing home, fine; if they come from workers who go to eat somewhere, fine, and if they come from a wedding whose menu has no sanitary control, fine. And, above all, if it messes up Well, it’s also good because nothing ever happens. Is it painful? Well, yes,” he says furiously.
It is Chicote himself who has revealed with his response the issues that in this new season he is going to investigate and denounce the program. So, are you going to eat it? returns with a clear objective: to make viewers reflect when choosing one restaurant or another when they go out to eat or attend a banquet.
There are always people who don’t give a damn where they come from where they see two bitches
Of all the topics this season – allergies, day-to-day menus, wedding banquets… – the one that has most pissed off and at the same time surprised the chef, as he himself admits, is the reviews of the restaurants. Who has not entered the comments of a restaurant and has decided based on these whether to go or not? In the imaginary of society, these reviews are made by diners like you or me. Chicote has discovered that behind these reviews there is a very dirty game, a game of money, payments and tragedies. A bad review, of the bought ones, of the ones that go away in Are you going to eat it? it can sink a restaurant. And, surely, that review is a big lie.
In fact, the chapter of the reviews arose from the chef’s own experience. It was when he was in full promotion for the inauguration of his last establishment, Omeraki. Suddenly one day, he receives mail from a man. In it, this person tells you to write to him to give him a few good reviews in exchange, of course, for money. At first, Chicote didn’t believe it, nor did he really know what was going on with this, but it all sounded too strange to him. So he told the director of the program and she was the one who alerted him: “Don’t you know what this is? This is how the reviews work.”
“You cannot imagine what is behind there. There is a negotiation out of the ordinary,” the chef reveals indignantly. And not only the bad reviews but also the good ones: “You don’t know how many people are buying reviews from one side or another so that when the user says ‘let’s go to such a restaurant’ they go to that one with the reviews. But it’s also there is it with the bad ones, because there are people who pay those other people to sink an establishment, either because it is your competition, or because you do not like it. There are many people earning money with this, “he says.
Who is not interested in restaurant menus? The majority of workers who eat out of the home base their diet on these menus. In this case, are you going to eat it? it analyzes what the dishes that are most frequently used on the daily menus are like, what their quality is and, above all, whether it is healthy to eat a daily menu. Offers full of fried foods, carbohydrates and processed foods that are not recommended in a healthy diet.
You can’t imagine what’s behind restaurant reviews
Chicote warns of the dangers of abusing this class of dishes. And a new problem: the rise in food. Are food prices affecting the quality of those menus? “Of course,” replies Chicote. Establishments that have adjusted the price with the same offer from 10 to 12 euros or 15 and establishments that have decided that if they cannot raise prices because their customers do not arrive, they buy something with which they can maintain the prices. “As a result of this, certain products have become unaffordable and ultra-processed, frozen products are thrown away,” confesses the chef.
Weddings, a type of event that, after the restrictions suffered by the pandemic, has experienced a significant increase, which has directly caused the emergence of numerous event organizers that do not meet the minimum guarantees of food safety. They are, specifically, those dedicated to catering services, which work, on many occasions, without the established permits or the infrastructures or personnel necessary for the correct development of their activity.
Thanks to Are you going to eat it? Society was able to witness first-hand the horror experienced in many nursing homes. That program in which the unnamable word became more visible than ever even led to another special on Antena 3 with Sonsoles Ónega. But it has been of little use. According to Chicote’s account, “unfortunately” no matter how much is shown, but how much is denounced, rarely anything happens. Citizen complaint emails multiply by dozens every day, and if they continue to multiply “it is because they continue to happen.”
“It never ends,” he confesses, “why do you think we’ve been on this show for five seasons? Because there are complaints everywhere, because there are people who write to me to go to one place or another.”
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